March 2004

The Foster Care Straitjacket: Innovation, Federal Financing & Accountability in State Foster Care Reform

As the federal government and states across the country grapple with record budget shortfalls, state efforts to reform troubled foster care systems are further hampered by rigid federal financing rules that stifle innovation and severely restrict spending federal dollars on services that could help reduce the number of children in foster care. These efforts come as the federal government nears completion of a three year process to evaluate state child welfare systems against a set of performance benchmarks. States that fall short of meeting performance targets risk losing a portion of the more than $4.6 billion in annual federal funding for children in foster care.